By Matt for the TIB Network:
Amy Joan Schneider owns her home and runs her own business. She is a full time mother for three children; but is the mother of five. She is struggling against some tough odds to regain custody of her two oldest children. She alleges that her family has been segregated by the court and she is fighting back.I first became aware of this story on New Year's Eve through a press release issued by Amy Joan which outlined her plight. I posted the release in its entirety with a few questions of my own attached at the end.
Low and behold, one of Amy Joan's neighbors dropped in and read the story and I started to get additional insight in to the story. Their daughters are friends and frequent playmates. As we traded emails, I began to get a clearer picture of Amy Joan and her children. Here is a portion of the email I received:
I am neighbors with Amy Schneider and I have three children. Her daughter Hailey is very good friends with my daughter [redacted] who is 10 years old. I would be glad to provide you any information I have. Most of my knowledge has come from my daughter and her interest after seeing and meeting the two Caucasian children when they were here. [My daughter] frequently spends the night at Hailey's and vice versa. Amy is a wonderful and active parent and I feel very sad to see this happen to her. I spoke with her on Wednesday and she said it would be fine if I responded to your email. Sorry it took so long to get back with you.Next, I opened a dialogue with Amy Joan herself.
From what I understand, Amy was in a divorce with her first husband in 1991. It was a pretty bad divorce and she just finished collage at Illinois State in Normal. After her divorce Amy moved home with her Mother in Decatur IL which is about 50 miles from Normal. Amy's oldest sister lived in Washington State and didn't have any children. Somehow the kids went to Washington and the sister wouldn't give them back to Amy. This oldest sister died. Now the children are in Texas with another sister and they are fighting in Court. And sadly the judge has not allowed Amy or her children to even see each other since last spring.
Amy Joan agreed to answer a series of questions via email [formatted transcript]. My first question was an attempt to understand how she got in this mess.
I was in a divorce in 1991. It was a bad divorce because I had two young children and no money. I do not ever put my ex-husband down, but in my opinion we had a vast difference in our maturity levels and our objectives in life turned out not to be the same. I never went after my ex-husband for money because I knew he did not have any and it would just be hateful to do so.Decidedly disadvantaged, Amy Joan went to court to start the fight to regain custody of her children.
My ex-husband and I lived in Bloomington-Normal. I attended college at Illinois State University in Normal. During the divorce and the break up of our rented home, I was working in Bloomington. With no money and no place to live, I moved home with my Mother in Decatur, Illinois about 50 miles from Bloomington.
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My oldest sister, who lived in Washington State, was barren and did not have any children. My Mother and sister offered to have my children visit my sister, which would give me a chance to get on my feet after my divorce.
In July or August 1993, my two children went to Washington to stay with my sister Christine. In November 1993, my mother sued me on behalf of my oldest sister for “guardianship” of my two children. Now remember, I had very little money and my mother and sister had intimate knowledge of my financial situation.
As you can see, this is a battle that has been going on for over ten years. Amy Joan provided me with a number of documents [Supreme Court Petition for one] that gave me a sense of the history of her case.
Repeatedly she has had motions denied, witnesses barred from testifying, and the like. Many involved in the case against Amy Joan have various conflicts of interest. For example, the advocate for the children was a partner in the law firm that represented the guardians. All of the witnesses against Amy Joan are represented by this single law firm.
The case finally makes its way on to the docket of the Honorable Albert G. Webber IV. Judge Webber was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Macon County Court in the 6th Circuit in May of 2001 and was elected to the bench in 2002.
It is in Judge Webber's notes, that I discover a couple of things that don't look good for Amy Joan. Apparently, she had missed some child support payments; had missed some court appearances and was late for others; but most seriously, there was an incident that happened at Christmas.
Here is how Amy Joan addressed the child support issue in my follow up interview:
In March 1995, child support had been set by the Macon County Court for $100 per month. This was due by both the father and me. The McLean County Court—where our divorce took place—did not have any kind of child support order.More on the last bit in a minute. Less than a month later, a motion for garnishment was submitted and then signed by the judge three days later. You should also be made aware that the children's father was not ordered to pay support by this order.
When the children were in Washington, my sister would not let me talk with them. There is uncontroverted and sworn eyewitness testimony in the record from two people who saw the Grandmother (my mom) hiding the children from both me and my ex husband when each of us were trying to visit our children while they were at my Mother’s house. (In September of 2002, my mother admitted that she hid the children from me for several days when I was trying to visit them at her house in Decatur.)
In March 1995, The original Judge in Macon County entered an order that required me, and only me, to post two $30,000 Corporate bonds before I could visit my two children outside the presence of my Mother or sister. I would ask my Mother what the children needed. She would continually tell me that “they don't need any money,” and that my sister was “quite well off,” but I could “buy them a nice gift.” So every year I would buy very nice gifts for each of them—TVs, stereos, cameras, etc. The Court did not give consideration to anything I bought for my children.
On April 4, 2003, Judge Diamond (who works for Judge Webber) issued a sua sponte (on his own) order awarding the guardian a decretal judgment against me for $9,200.00 plus interest in back child support. There was no child support petition before the Probate Court as required by Illinois Law. This was plainly punishment intended to make me run from this fight with my mother and sister—both of whom are paying Judge Webber's friends.
On the issue of tardiness and missed court dates, Amy Joan lives 50 miles away from the court. Amy Joan noted in the follow up interview that it was no big deal for her opponents to be late, just her. [I don't recall reading anything in Judge Webber's docket entries that refutes this.] As for missing a date, here is how Amy Joan describes what happened that day:
On February 17, 2004 I was late by about two or three minutes. I had brought a witness with me to testify. If I remember correctly that was a time I was unlucky in traffic and had probably just started a little late. I did show up, but if you look at the docket sheet it simply states "no appearance by Amy Schneider"—even though I made oral arguments on everything. The judge saw that I had a witness, and even asked him why he was there, but the judge never let me call him to testify. He also never corrected the record to show that I was present. The docket sheet reads as if I never made any appearance.Some interesting record keeping on the part of this judge if you ask me.
The 'incident' at Christmas looks pretty bad in Judge Webber's docket entries. The judge notes that the Normal Police were called to return the children to the guardians after the holiday. As per usual with this case, that's not the whole story:
My oldest Daughter cursed me and everybody in the house during the New Year’s 2003-04 visitation. We recognized this isolated behavior as an adversarial attempt at building a ‘conflict’ for the purpose of keeping the children from visiting us in the future.I have seen the depositions of the two police officers and they do corroborate her story.
While the children were here I wrote a NOTICE Of TERMINATION and served it on all parties in this case. I was terminating the ‘boarding school’ at my sisters house in Texas because the ‘one year temporary living arrangement’ (that Judge Diamond had said was ok) had expired as of August 28, 2003. Judge Diamond’s order dealt with visitation between the guardian and me.
On January 2, 2004, American Airlines cancelled the flight that my two children were scheduled to be on. Also on January 2, 2004, the lawyers from the Samuels Miller Law Firm had Judge Webber sign an ex-parte order for me to send my two children back to Dan and Karen in Texas. I did send them back as ordered.
The next available flight was on January 5, 2004 at 10:30am. I sent the children on that flight. On January 2, 2004, my sister Karen called the police so they came to my house. Judge Webber later wrote in his docket entry that I had refused to obey his order and that the Normal Police had ‘to effect the return of the children five days later’. A Lie.
Since then, I have taken evidence depositions of the two Normal Police officers involved. In the depositions the police officers both testified that they were acting on Karen's report of "domestic violence" at my house. The police confirmed that there was no domestic violence at my house; that the Airline had cancelled the flight; that the January 5, 2004 flight was the first available to San Angelo, Texas; and that the scheduling had been done before they arrived at my home that evening. I have personal knowledge that the airline did NOT charge the service fee ($100 each) which points to the airline changing the children's itinerary. I can send you copies of the two Normal Police officer’s sworn depositions if you’d like.
My sister and the guardian filed a Motion to Suspend Visitation. In June 2004, Judge Webber GRANTED their motion and suspended all of our visitation.
According to Amy Joan, her mother is influential in the local Republican Party. Which brings up the possibility, however likely, that Amy Joan and her children are the victims of a political conspiracy. There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to pique my interest in this angle, it will be interesting to see what happens as a result of Amy Joan's latest move: she has filed a verified petition and served a Notice to Judge Webber to appear and testify under oath in a Substitution of Judge hearing. The hearing is scheduled for February 2. According to the release:
"Judge Webber exceeds the Probate Court's authority and discretion in order to keep the Mother's two children with the non-parent non-guardians who are paying Judge Webber's friends, business associates and campaign contributors."Amy Joan also makes the claim that racism and segregation is at the heart of this matter. I remain unconvinced at this point that racism is in play here; but, there is certainly a doubt about whether or not Amy Joan is getting a fair shot at justice.
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Schneider said, "An openly biased Judge Albert Webber maintains the status quo through deceptive means. The only way I can prove my petition is to have Judge Webber take an oath and testify."
Schneider, who is representing herself, has had little success in appealing previous decisions against her to higher levels of the Illinois court system. "Judge Webber won't let me bring my witnesses or put sworn testimony in the record. With no record, the appellate Courts have nothing to review," Schneider claims.
